


Black Ice

by Bumpkin



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Babs is a good friend, Bat training used in regular life, Jason outs himself as alive, M/M, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-17
Updated: 2021-03-17
Packaged: 2021-03-25 23:47:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,449
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30097002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bumpkin/pseuds/Bumpkin
Summary: Tim was already at WE when he got the call from Jason. The kind of call that no-one ever wanted to get from someone they loved. The call that started out ominously with their loved one opening with:“Hey, I’m okay, that’s the biggest thing you have to know…”
Relationships: Tim Drake/Jason Todd
Comments: 8
Kudos: 129
Collections: JayTim Week 2021





	Black Ice

**Author's Note:**

  * For [chibi_nightowl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/chibi_nightowl/gifts).



> This is just glancing at canon, some things happened like in the comics, others didn’t. For the purpose of this story, ‘The Battle of the Cowl’ didn’t happen. :D And also, this was brought to you because I was nattering on Discord about something that happened between me and my hub at chibi_nightowl and she told me, “That sounds like a fic right there.” and I was like, okay, and wrote it. :D Betaed by Rei Fukai, Veriatas, and Queenie from the Capes & Coffee Discord - they are all amazing ppl!

Black Ice  
By Marns AKA Bumpkin  
Rated T  
(Wordcount: 1443)

Tim was already at WE when he got _the_ call from Jason. The kind of call that no-one ever wanted to get from someone they loved. The call that started out ominously with their loved one opening with:

“Hey, I’m okay, that’s the biggest thing you have to know…”

Tim, hearing that, felt the blood in his veins freeze. That was _not_ the opening of any good kind of conversation. In fact, that was one of the worst ways he could think of for Jason to open a conversation. It implied that there was a chance that Jason almost hadn’t been okay.

Several disastrous scenarios raced through his mind, both in and out of his Red Hood gear, involving Jason coming out the worst. But before he catastrophized anymore he had to figure out; just which one was this?

Tim unfroze enough to ask, “What happened?”

Jason sounded shaky even through the phone, but proud at the same time. “I was coming to surprise you with lunch, and when on the way, hit some black ice on Dillon Ave at the curve. You know where I’m talking about, at any rate…”

Tim made an involuntary sound in the back of his throat as he immediately pictured the area Jason was talking about: it was a long curve that bordered the Sprang River at the end. Before the city had wised up and put up some rather large and sturdy concrete barriers, a lot of people had missed the curve continuing and had driven right into the river. So, _so_ , many people had died there.

“... it’s all okay thanks to the advanced defensive driving training that Bruce made us take. If it wasn’t for that, it could have been messy. But instead of spinning out and hitting the barriers at speed, which would have flipped me right into the river, I was able to keep the car going straight long enough to slow it down. Man, Tim, I’m going to have to get Babs to pull the footage because damn, it was a beautiful bit of driving and I really need to see it from the outside.”

 _Beautiful?!_ The man almost dies, the only thing that saved him was the intense driving courses that Bruce put them through, and he calls that _beautiful?_ Tim didn’t have words, total loss, just gone. Jason was still rambling and Tim forcibly pulled his attention back to hear what he was saying.

“The car is toast though. Sorry, I know it was your favorite, but there was no saving it after I hit the barrier with two corners. I think the frame is bent, and that’s something you just can’t fix. But the cops on the scene, not for my accident but another that happened before, said that it was some of the sweetest driving they had seen since their training days and their instructor was showing off. Quite the compliment, right? But also on that note— how far are you with making me alive again? Because one of the cops kinda recognized me as Jason Todd-Wayne…”

 _Oh crap!_ Tim rolled over to his less than legal laptop and began to type madly as he kept listening. He hadn’t done as much as he should have on the project because Jason hadn’t been in a hurry to be alive again. Sure he had the bare bones of it done, or at least the bare bones according to a Bat (which would pass any high-level government security check), and shoehorned the last bits into all the needed places while Jason still rambled on.

“... and I had to talk pretty fast about the cover story that we came up with. Good thing we’d already hashed that out, right? I don’t know how much of it she believed, but she gave me the benefit of the doubt about forgetting my paperwork at home because I still wasn’t used to having to carry it with me…”

Tim was getting overloaded now. He didn’t know how much more he could take before the anxiety that was his constant companion reared its head. The idea that he could have lost Jason — again — to something so mundane… God, it would have destroyed him.

“... and did me a real solid in getting in touch with our regular towing service. There are times when being the adopted son of Bruce Wayne comes in handy. Anyway, I should let you get back to work and will see you soon after I deal with what’s left of the car. Love you!”

Especially now, when they’d barely begun dating.

“Love you too.” He echoed and Jason hung up. But then Tim began to shake in reaction as he put his phone down. So much of who he was — his entire life — was wrapped up in the older man, in one way or another.

He’d barely recovered from everything with Bruce, Damien, and Dick as it was. The only things that he’d held onto in that time to keep his sanity, was that he was right about Bruce not being dead, and the fledgling relationship between him and Jason. It hadn’t been romantic back then, but the glimmerings of what they had now were there. The absolute last thing he needed to deal with now was losing Jason— not when he’d just stitched his life back together into something resembling normality. Or as much as anyone in their lifestyle could call normal.

Getting back everything else he’d tossed away in his grief-fueled obsession hadn’t been easy. Hell, he didn’t know if he’d ever get everything back, or if he’d want to. There was so much that was different now, things he’d gained in the meantime that he would never want to give up… his relationship with Jason only being one of them.

Suddenly, his private phone rang again and Tim looked at it with dread. _What now? More bad news?_ A shaking hand reached out to pick it up without him consciously thinking of doing it. _Great, now my own body is as out of my control as my traitorous brain_ , he thought as he thumbed the accept icon.

“Hey,” Barbara’s warm contralto said from the other end and Tim relaxed. “I heard my name while I was monitoring things and heard everything. I just wanted to ask if you were okay?”

Tim cleared his throat. “Yeah, I’m okay. The car from what I understood, not so much.”

“Don’t deflect. I know this had to hit you pretty hard.”

Tim sighed and sat back in his chair. Idly spinning it with one toe in short arcs he answered, “I should have known better than to try and fob you off, but I’m honestly okay for the most part. Jason’s alive, for real and on paper now, and he’s going to be here sometime soon. I’ll be better when he gets here and I can see and _feel_ the truth of that, but until then I have a lot of work to do that will help me keep my mind busy until then.”

A warm chuckle echoed over the line. “I guess there are some good points to us all being workaholics to some degree, isn’t there?”

“Yep,” Tim drawled, making sure to pop the ‘p’ at the end of the word. “Thanks for calling, Babs, it’s good to know you’re keeping an ear out.”

It really _was_ good to know that someone else would have understood and been there for him had the worst happened. He wouldn’t have been alone. It allowed him to push the horror down and away, letting him feel closer to normal.

“All in a day’s work as the awesome and all-seeing Oracle. Who knows what would happen to you lot if I didn’t.”

“Nothing good,” Tim said with a chuckle of his own. Then he couldn’t help asking with morbid curiosity, “Did you pull up the footage like Jay wanted? Was his driving really as good as he said?”

This time the laugh was a short peal, and her humour at the question shone through as she answered, “Oh yeah, it was pretty damn sweet! Those cops weren’t buttering him up …”

Tim sat back and relaxed as he let Barbara’s voice wash over him as she talked about the things Jason had done from a technical standpoint. Things that would only be understood by others with the same knowledge. He interjected here and there with his own observations, but running through the back of his mind was one thing.

 _Jason is safe._ He hadn’t lost anything, and his other bridges were steadily being rebuilt. _Life is pretty good at the moment._

-fin-


End file.
